


raise a glass to the four of us

by QueenWithABeeThrone



Series: but i will gladly join the fight (the force4ham au no one asked for) [2]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Crossover, Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Force Ghosts, Friendship, M/M, Pre-Slash, ex-stormtrooper!hamilton
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-06-01
Packaged: 2018-07-11 14:46:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7056814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenWithABeeThrone/pseuds/QueenWithABeeThrone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"See, I saw a lot of people running around, and I think somebody said something about--Laf something?"</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>"Lafayette?" John half-shrieks.</i>
</p>
<p>or: everyone give it up for the galaxy's favorite fighting half-Twi'lek.</p>
            </blockquote>





	raise a glass to the four of us

**Author's Note:**

> man this has been stewing in my Pages app for a bit. there's going to be more in the series, don't worry!

The next day, John wakes up to the sound of Alex's voice, saying, "--got no _krething_ clue what the hell is so important that everyone's rushing around like wampas have invaded the base, is there an evacuation drill?"

"Mmf," John mumbles.

"John, you're awake!" Alex exclaims, and suddenly John's bed dips with the weight of someone happily throwing their body down right next to his. John makes a noise and clings tight to his pillow, burying his face in its warmth because it's _early_ , dammit. If he's supposed to be grounded then by the gods let him have his damn rest.

" _Mmf_ ," John manages. He doesn't want to lift his head from his nice, soft, warm pillow. He just wants sleep.

"Come on, wake up," says Alex, shaking his shoulder. "Do you Resistance pilots usually sleep in so late? It's already 0600--"

John lifts his head up from his pillow and stares blearily at Alex. "That is too early for pilots to be up," he says, but it comes out as a mumbled, "'s'too'ly," before John lets his face mash back into his pillow.

"Huh," says Alex. "That's weird."

John doesn't ask him _why_ , mainly because he is practicing the valiant art of trying to go back to sleep.

"See, I saw a lot of people running around, and I _think_ somebody said something about--Laf something?"

" _Lafayette_?" John half-shrieks, all but flinging himself out of bed. " _Stang_ , I forgot--Lafayette's coming back!"

"Yeah, Lafayette," says Alex, much less enthusiastically, squinting at John as John frantically strips off his socks and pajamas. "Who's that supposed to be?"

\--

This is Lafayette:

A young man, half-human and half-Twi'lek, only twenty-four or so in Standard years, certainly a teenager by some non-human standards, but bold in word and deed, loyal to his friends and a terror to his enemies. In fact, he may be one of the most loyal agents the Resistance may have.

He is also one of the richest, owing to his human father's generosity in distributing his wealth--so rich, in fact, that some have joked that he could fund the whole of the Resistance by himself, if need be. He smiles when he hears these jokes.

But beyond all of that, he is a warm, kind man, easy with his friendships and his affections. He is a loyal man, who has traveled through six systems, from Coruscant to the Republic's numerous temporary capitals scattered across the galaxy to the many hidden Resistance bases in service to the Resistance. He is a brave man--some would say almost reckless--and a smart one as well. He's always fine, as he'll insist.

Most important of all, though, he is one of John Laurens' closest, dearest friends.

They met on Coruscant--John, Lafayette, and Herc--and soon became almost inseparable from each other. Everyone knew then, as everyone knows now, that to find one, all you need to do is find the two others. The separations all three have gone through since joining the Resistance have not dented their famously close friendship, has only intensified it--for every time they meet up again may be the last time they ever see each other again.

For the price of war is not money, or riches, but _lives_ , and Lafayette--made an orphan at an early age, after his mother's X-Wing was shot down in a skirmish with the Dawn Army--knows this better than most. Has had it drilled into his head since he was young, hailing from a family of soldiers fighting for freedom.

The price of freedom is a steep price, paid in blood. General Leia Organa paid it, is still paying it, over and over again. Lafayette knows that, by the end of this war, he will have done the same, over and over and over again.

And here's the thing.

He joins the fight anyway.

And when he comes back to base, there are two people that he always, always looks for.

\--

"John!"

"Gilbert!" John yells, letting go of Alex to run to a man with a teal tinge to his dark skin and head-tails twisted around each other over his shoulder--who is apparently the cause for all the hubbub on base--and nearly knock him over with a hug. "Gilbert Lafayette, you _wonderful_ man--"

"Yo, yo, Laf!" Herc shouts, coming out of nowhere to engulf the two of them in a hug. "Mothers' _shit_ , Laf--"

"I have missed you two as well," Lafayette laughs, and Alex backs away a little, feeling more and more like an outsider with every second he spends watching all three of them. "So what did I miss? I heard something about a TIE fighter--"

"Oh, yeah!" John squirms about and locks eyes with Alex and _grins_ , like Alex is something special, some _one_ special. There goes any plans for escape he might've had. "Alex! Alex, get your tiny ass over here!"

" _Tiny_ ," says Alex, offended. It's enough that he marches up to John, and says, "Just because you're six foot _something_ , John Laurens--"

"John, _mon ami_ , who is this _petit ourson_ you've somehow picked up?" Lafayette interrupts.

Alex gapes at him, then says, "I have no idea what you just said but I'm _pretty sure_ it was downright rude."

"Nah, Laf's just teasing," says Herc, still attached to Lafayette even as John disentangles himself from the hug to sling an arm over his shoulders and bring him in closer towards the other two. "I'm pretty sure."

"He called you a 'little cub'," says John. "He does that to everyone. Except General Organa, and she's shorter than all of us."

"The general is a formidable woman," says Lafayette, with a grin.

"I'm not a _little cub_ ," Alex huffs. "I was a Stormtrooper--I'm not anymore, you can quit staring at me like that--and the First Order might've been shit at literally _everything else_ but they did give me extensive combat training. _And_ I flew a TIE fighter here."

"He neglects to mention he crashed it in the yard in the middle of the night," says John in dry tones.

"You neglect to mention you all pointed weapons at me," Alex says, nudging John's side with a sharp elbow.

"So Poe was right," says Lafayette, thoughtfully, and Alex's train of thought skids to a stop right there. _Poe Dameron_ \--Finn's Resistance pilot, the one he saved from execution or reconditioning. He almost asks if Lafayette knows Dameron, but refrains from doing so at the last minute--everyone seems to know each other's name on the Resistance base, at least. Of course Lafayette must know Dameron.

"Don't tell him that, you'll just make his ego even bigger," John says. "You keep it up and he won't even need an X-Wing to fly anymore."

"You sure we still talking about Dameron or you?" Herc says. "Anyway--Alex, this is--"

"Marie-Joseph Paul Yves--" John starts.

"Just call me Lafayette," Lafayette interrupts, shooting John a glare. "Or Gilbert. If John tells you anything else then he is a--what's the word? A laserbrained _dickmuncher_?"

"I love you too, Laf," says John, with a lazy smile.

"I'm Alex," says Alex, ignoring the designation clawing to get out of his throat, _AX-17_ \--"Just Alex."

" _Enchanté_ ," says Lafayette, a corner of his lips pulling upward as he looks Alex over. "A pleasure to meet you."

\--

"So how long are you gonna stay here?" John asks, after all the hubbub's died down and Lieutenant Connix is done debriefing Lafayette.

"Until the next mission, which I don't think will be any time soon," says Lafayette. "All seems very quiet. The First Order's licking its wounds, has been since Starkiller."

Beside him, Alex stabs his bread with extreme prejudice. "They're replenishing their supply," he says. "They lost a lot of troops and suffered a major setback when Starkiller Base blew. If they're being quiet, it's only a matter of time until they strike back. Till then, they'll be collecting materials and--upping their recruitment drive."

There's a hard note to Alex's voice that makes John's stomach churn, punctuated by how viciously he stabs his bread that says there's more to it than that.

"Kidnapping," says Herc.

"Exactly," says Alex.

"Those _fuckers_ ," Lafayette says.

"They called it 'redistribution of resources'," says Alex. "But yeah, kidnapping. The younger the better, and if you could somehow set up a breeding program then you'd have troopers from practically birth."

John pushes his plate away, suddenly not hungry anymore. He wonders if Alex even remembers his mother. He can't imagine what would be worse, and some small part of him decides, then and there, that the next secret base he finds belonging to the First Order, he's going to blow the hell out of.

"Aren't you gonna eat that?" Alex asks, gesturing to John's abandoned plate with his spoon.

"Not hungry," says John.

Alex blinks at him for a moment, as if he's surprised by John's admission, then shakes his head. "I keep forgetting the Resistance is much more lax about eating," he says. "Kind of a shock when I was hanging with the sisters: it didn't matter how late you were to the table, you still had a full plate. You know the Order used to feed us protein blocks instead? And if you didn't make it in time you had to go hungry till the next time or find a way to sneak into the cooks' good graces."

He says it so casually that Herc immediately pushes his own plate away. "You managed to stomach _those_ for--how old are you?" he asks.

"Twenty," says Alex. "You still gonna eat that?"

"Uh, no, not hungry," says Herc.

"Too bad, mine now," says Lafayette, reaching over to spear Herc's potato with a fork (getting a "hey!"). "The First Order has done you a _great_ disservice, _mon petit ourson_."

"There you go again," Alex complains. "I'm not a little cub! Just because you're all freakishly tall--"

"I will have you know that I am _average height_ , Alex," says Herc. "You just have a complex." He gestures to Lafayette and John and adds, "But these two are actual literal giants who probably have Wookiee genes and should quit stealing other people's food."

"If I had Wookiee genes would I be so nice to you?" Lafayette asks. "Alex, don't listen to Herc. He is a, how do you say it, _filthy kriffing liar_." To drive home his point, he unties his lekku, holds them near the tips, and stabs them into his shoulders, gaze fixed on Herc. "Spice, wounds," he says.

"See what I gotta deal with?" John says, as Herc makes a rude gesture in return.

"Yeah, I see," Alex says, but he's grinning.

John scoots closer, bumps his shoulder. "But if all you ate was protein blocks," he says, "then clearly that means we need to introduce you to everything you missed out on. Like ice cream and homemade soup."

"And roasted womp rat and snake stew," says Herc, dryly, "the staple of every spy's diet when you get to the Outer Rim."

"We're not feeding Alex _womp rats_ , Herc," says Lafayette. "Has he not suffered enough with the protein blocks?"

Alex pauses for a moment, brows furrowing together as if he's trying to remember something, before he triumphantly makes a very rude gesture at the both of them. "I was with the _Schuyler sisters_ before I got here, remember," he says. "You think Eliza Schuyler would let me go without introducing me to actual food?"

"He's right," says John. "Shit. Now you have incredibly unrealistic expectations."

"I remember her candied marrowfruit on a stick," says Herc, dreamily. "Tasted like hope."

"Where did you learn that, anyway?" John asks, leaning on the table as Lafayette not-so-discreetly takes his plate as well. "The Schuyler sisters?"

Alex is quiet for a moment, staring down at his bread. "I--" he starts, then shakes his head. "I don't know," he says. "Reconditioning's a bitch."

John freezes. He knows enough about the First Order and the Empire, has heard enough from Finn and even General Organa, about how both empires kept their underlings loyal to them above all. And Poe's descriptions of the contraption they'd tied him to--

\--he swallows the bile that rises in his throat. The First Order's not going to have _anyone_ from the Resistance ever again, least of all Alex.

Lafayette says, as he pushes his plate away with a distinctly ill look, "Well. I'm not hungry anymore."

"Hey, more for me," says Alex, spearing a potato with his fork.

\--

The next time Alex drops by General Organa's office--accompanying John to appeal for clearing both of them for missions--there's a blue glow from her office. For a moment Alex is about to dismiss it as just her watching a hologram, but then he and John get closer.

"-- _lutely not_ ," General Organa's saying, sternly. "That's my answer."

"I'm just saying it would reduce incompetence and incentivize them to do their jobs," says another voice, one that Alex doesn't really know but sends a chill down his spine. There's--something about that voice, he thinks, that reminds him of someone, but he's not sure what. "Anyway, it gets results."

"No one is Force-choking anyone even a _little_ ," General Organa says, flatly.

John, beside Alex, claps a hand over his mouth to stifle his giggles.

"Dismissal?" says the--well, as far as Alex can tell, it's a man, and now there's a quality to his voice that makes Alex think, weirdly enough, of Washington.

"None of that either," says General Organa. "The Resistance needs all the help we can get. Unlike _your_ Empire, we don't have enough resources to simply fire people at will whenever they fuck up."

And then it clicks.

"Darth _fucking_ Vader?" Alex whispers, in horrified tones.

"He's hilarious," says John, with a grin, as if _Darth Vader_ hanging around the base is a regular occurrence. With a sinking feeling, Alex realizes--apparently, it is. "Does this every week or so. I think he's growing on the General."

"Why do you have Darth Vader just casually _haunting the base_?" Alex whispers.

"You probably shouldn't call him Darth Vader to his face, he gets weird about that, apparently it's not something he likes being reminded of," says John. "And the General's his kid, that's why he's hanging around the base." He shrugs, helplessly, and says, "The Skywalkers are a kriffed-up family, man."

"You're telling me," Alex grumbles, just as Vader's--ghost thing stops talking.

"You should probably let your eavesdroppers inside," he says.

Alex makes a choked noise as John's eyes widen. "How--" he starts.

"Force shit," mutters John, " _fuck_ , should've--"

The door opens, then, and Alex stumbles through, grabbing on to John to try and steady himself. Instead they both end up flat on the floor, looking up at General Organa raising a brow and--a young man, at most in his early twenties, with a scar beside his right eye, glowing the same as Washington did.

"Sir," says John.

"If both of you are appealing to be cleared for missions," says General Organa, sounding distinctly unimpressed, "my answer remains the same: no."

"You're--" _Darth fucking Vader_ , Alex almost says to the ghost, but he remembers John's warning, so he switches gears and says instead, "Kylo Ren's favorite."

General Organa lets out a slow breath.

"I am," says the ghost beside her, sounding strangely older than he looks. "Unfortunately. I'm Anakin."

_Oh,_ thinks Alex, distantly. _Oh, his name's not actually Vader._

"Nice to see you again, I was getting worried there," says John, getting to his feet. "You didn't show up for _days_."

"Missed me?" Anakin asks, with a grin.

"Don't encourage him, Laurens," says General Organa, then she says to Anakin, who's opened his mouth: "Don't even think about trying to make a case for them either. They're grounded until I say they aren't, and that's final."

" _Leia_ \--" Anakin wheedles.

General Organa fixes him with a glare, and Alex shudders in sympathy. He's had glares like that turned on him before.

"--fine," says Anakin, with a sigh.

"Now I can see where Luke gets it," says General Organa, before she turns to the two of them. "Out, both of you. _Now_."

"I was gonna say, sir," starts John.

"You keep coming in here asking for a mission and you're grounded for a year," says General Organa, pointing towards the door. "Out. Unless either of you can tell me about the recent First Order activity in the Avares system--"

"I could," says Alex. "They were working on that when I ran off."

General Organa stares at him, then says, "On second thought, stay. Both of you."

John, halfway to the door already, turns around, surprised gratitude written clear across his face. "I--Thank you, sir," he says, taking up his position next to Alex.

Alex leans into him, feeling grateful for his reappearance at his side. Which is logical, considering he and John have been sharing a room, considering Alex has found it more convenient to stick by John's side most of the time.

He flicks a glance at the ghostly Anakin again, who's perched himself atop the table, eyes scanning over Alex as if there's something special about him.

Alex says, "Have we got a pen? Some paper?"

"Paper?" General Organa asks.

"To organize my thoughts," says Alex. "I mean, I could work with a datapad--"

General Organa presses a datapad into his hands and says, "Then get organizing."


End file.
